Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-03-23
PEOPLE WITH BIG sTOMACHs.
Enormous Meals That Have Been
Eaten by COMMANDERS.

Haydn, the great composer and equally
great consumer, liked to dine alone,
1t was his custom to order dinner fOI
five, and then at the appointed hour Il
deyOur the whole banquet. On one Oe
casion he commanded the waiter, whC
was not acquainted with the great musi,
clans popularity, to serve the dinner
''The dinner is ready" said the wait
err bowling, ''but monsieur, the com
pany has not yet arrived"
'De company" retorted Haydn,
contemptuously, ''de company? | am
de company"
The dinner was at once served to ''de
company" who demolished it quite as
effectually as any ordinary company
could have done.
Another lordly feeler was a contem-
porary of Haydn, the duke of Norfolk,
who would eat at Covent Garden tav-
ern, food enough for five persons; but he
possessed more sensitive temperament
than the musician, and would never eat
five dinners in one a second time at tie
same hotel, not caring to encounter
again the obvious amaZement of the
walters.
The Cure de Brequier is immOrtalized
by Brilliant Savarin. This reverend
gentleman would G 1T ut a single sitting
as much food as would serve a working
man for ten days. Brillat Savarin once
saw him, in three-quarters of an hour,
sweep into his capacious stomach "a
quart of soup, a plate of boUnli, a
large leg of mutton, superb ham, a
copiOus salad, pound or two OF cheese,
prodigious quantity of bread, a bottle
Of wine, another of water ami d cup of
coffee" The narrator is careful to state
that the cure did not eat either the ham
bone or that Of the leg of mutton,
After this exploit" says Brillat Saya-
rim, Ill Sc repOSa.
The president of the tribunal at
Avingnen, an excellent judge of good
cheer as well as of law, was relating 10
an auditor the delights of dinner from
which he had just come. I'VE had a
superb turkey, tender as a chicken, fat
as a ortolan and stuffed to the beak
with trufiles. We left nothing but its
bones.
And how many were there Of you:''
asked the hearer.
''Only two. There was myself and
there was-the turkey"
We are told of an Englishman OF
letters and politics who ate at a solitary
dinner seven pounds and half of solid
meat. At the shop where he performed
the feat the customers were at liberty tC
eat rs much as they liked for a certain
sim, but its keeper had never before
encountered a man of his ilk.
Capital beef, said the gourmand,
VIXEN at length his appetite WAS salts
fed; Here indeed man may cut and
come again."
You may cut, sir said the irate
puryeyOr of good cheer, -but III be-
if you shall come againl''
1t was this story which gave the Rev.
Rowland Hill his irreverent simile for
the divine grace. The grace of God, =
said this earnest, but jOcular preacher,
sis like a round of beef-you may cut
and come again"
LuculluS never dined more sumptu-
ously than when he dined alone, ard
on occasion upraided his cook for serv-
ing him with cheap repast when "Lu-
culluS dined with LuculluS,n the cost
of which was only about 500.
Among the modern extravagant epi-
cures, We have the Vicomte de Well
Castle, who wagered that he could con-
sumo 500 francs worth of food and
liquor in two hours. His order consist
ed of twenty-four dozen oysters, soup,
a beef-steak, a pheasant stuffed with
truflleS, a salmi or ortolons, dish of
asparagus, plate of young peas, a pine
apple, dish of Strawberries, five bottles
OF wine, coffee and liquors. He won
his wager in one hour and forty min
uteS.
Napoleon l. ate little, and that rapid
ly, as if he grudged the time. His two
favorite dishes were breast of mutton
grilled and lentils. Napoleon III, re-
sembled his uncle in gastrOnomic indif-
ference and sobriety, and had no care
about what he ate, while Louis XVIII,
was more interested in menu than in
an act of Parliament.